We are back online after a little break. Time to catch up on some recent adventures!

The best thing about living in Central Europe is being able to visit nearby cities easily by car. So at New Year’s, we decided to take a quick weekend trip to see our friends in Leuven – one family lives there now and another was visiting from Indonesia for the holidays, a perfect excuse to go!

We woke up (very) early on New Year’s Day and hit the road. Personally, I was excited to see the sights as we drove up through France, Luxembourg and into Belgium. As we set off, up and over the Jura mountains, the sky started to lighten and we caught glimpses of beautiful green valleys and misty fields. Then the fog rolled in. And in, and in… It was so foggy that we could only see a few meters ahead of us on the road. And it stayed with us, as we drove up through France, Luxembourg and into Belgium. We saw no sights. At one point, we decided to stop for lunch and the only thing we could find – literally – was a McDonalds. Thank goodness for those glowing golden arches. We couldn’t even see far enough off the road to find a gas station when we needed one.

The sun appeared for just this one moment on the drive up!

But we made it to Leuven safely with a joyous reunion (and well-deserved beer) at the hotel. That night, we grabbed some Italian food with our pile of extremely tired kids and planned our city touring for the following day.

View from the hotel.

Downtown Leuven

Kids and the giant Christmas tree

Christmas downtown

Christmas reindeer

Tired pizza kids

Top of the Belgium bucket list was beer. The guys were keen to try all the Trappist beers that Leuven had on offer and they made a little dent in them – unfortunately, the brewery that they tried to visit only gave tours to 8 or more people, so they had to settle on simply drinking all the beer in the bar instead of on the tour. I think that was an acceptable compromise. The rest of us wandered the city, checking out the remnants of New Years parties and explaining to the kids every five seconds why there was so much confetti and empty bottles on the street. But we topped it off with some gourmet hamburgers, so all was forgiven.

We also found a delicious chocolaterie with amazing handmade truffles. The owner let the kids dip their fingers into the chocolate fountain – I’m really not sure how sanitary that was, but the kids were thrilled. Then we bought some pies and books in the market, and gave ourselves a walking tour of the amazing city architecture.

Leuven explorers

Leuven alley

Quiet streets

Waterway

Facade

Church facade

Downtown alleys

Gothic city hall

Saint Peter’s

Church hall

Church altar

City hall parapet

Church view

City hall front

Chocolate fountain

Mmmm chocolate finger

Photobomb!

Beer

More beer

Even more beer

LOL dude in his robe

That night was dinner with the whole gang – and more joyous reunions took place! The kids went wild while we tried our best to have some adult conversation. And J was lucky to have a sleepover with her bestie that night. Note to self: don’t ask the kids to take the photos of you and your friends because they will all be out of focus.

The next day we said our goodbyes and headed back on the road for another foggy drive home. We decided to take the long way around the Jura, heading up through Geneva instead of over the mountains – good choice, since we could now see the snow that had fallen over the weekend and blocked our way. Phew!

Looking forward to our next trip!

Dinner with friends

All the kids

All the adults

Saying goodbye

Kid photographers

Besties

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6 thoughts on “Lovely Leuven – catching up”

Thank you for sharing your adventures. This brought back old memories from my childhood. My father was in the military stationed in Marvilke Framcre but we lived in Ete Belgium. The pictures were so nice too. I’m Lorraine’s friend Lorraine Chapman